While the Blue Jackets were left to measure their regret after last night’s 4-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, center Brandon Dubinsky began pleading his case to the NHL against further discipline for the second-period hit that changed the tenor of the evening.

In the closing minutes of regulation, with the score tied at 3, Jackets center Ryan Johansen tried to rim the puck around the end boards, but took too sharp of an angle off his backhand, sending it off goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and into the slot.

There waiting was perhaps the last player on the Ducks the Blue Jackets would pick in that situation — Corey Perry.

Perry, showing the patience of an elite scorer, waited out Bobrovsky and fired home the winning goal with only 2:25 remaining.

“It’s tough to lose on a freaky bounce like that,” forward Nick Foligno said. “It’s a game you look back on and say we let it slip away. We feel like we should have had that one.”

The Blue Jackets, who had won three straight, got two goals from Artem Anisimov and one from Blake Comeau. Bobrovsky had 28 saves.

This game will be remembered, though, for Dubinsky’s hit on Ducks forward Saku Koivu with 34.8 seconds left in the second period.

Koivu carried the puck into the Jackets’ zone and had just passed it when Dubinsky stepped into him at the blue line.

Dubinsky did not leave his skates or appear to target Koivu’s head, but his right shoulder glanced off Koivu’s raised stick before smacking his head.

Koivu was “knocked out,” according to Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau, but “looked like he was OK” after the game.

Dubinsky was given a five-minute major penalty for interference and a game misconduct, ending his evening.

“I didn’t agree with the call,” he said. “But the refs see it at game speed and they have to make a call. Obviously I don’t think I’m a dirty player. I don’t think I was trying to target his head.

“I understand the league is trying to crack down on hits to the head, and I don’t think it was one.”

The interference major was called not by referees Paul Devorski or Brian Pochmara, but by one of the linesmen.

“I was just going to finish my check,” Dubinsky said. “I know (Koivu) moved the puck, but it was less than a second between him moving the puck and when the hit actually happened, so, by definition, I don’t think that’s an interference call.

“My shoulder and my elbow were tucked. It’s a fast game. I’m not a dirty player. I play the game honest. I went out there to try and make a body check, not injure Koivu and make a dirty hit.”

The Ducks scored only one goal during the five-minute major, by Emerson Etem at 1:51 of the third to make it 3-2.

The Jackets tied it when a James Wisniewski shot bounced off Anisimov on its way into the net with 11:36 remaining.

Even after Perry’s goal, the Jackets had a chance to tie it.

Given their only power play of the night with 87 seconds left to play — the Ducks had five power plays, including the major — the Blue Jackets couldn’t net a goal even with Bobrovsky pulled.

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